CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

“What was the best part of your day, Nana?” Sophie asked, looking up from her plate.

Teresa put her fork down and beamed. “Can I have more than one best?”

“Mommy says no,” Sophie replied, sounding very serious and looking toward Nora. “Right Mommy? There’s only one best of something? Right?”

Nora nodded and smiled. “That’s right, ladybug, but if Nana wants to tell us two great things about her day, we should let her, don’t you think?”

Sophie smiled and nodded.

“Okay, then,” Teresa said, “I have two. My first best is having dinner with the two most amazing girls in the world.” She gestured toward a small lump of painted clay in the center of the table. “And my second best is the art Sophie made for us at school.”

“It’s not art, Nana, it’s a turkey. And it’s for Thanksgiving, which is coming soon, right?”

“That’s exactly right,” Nora said. “And speaking of Thanksgiving, you know Daddy and Vicki will be here for Thanksgiving, right?”

When the little girl nodded, Nora went on. “And you may hear people talking about something great that is happening with them.”

“What, Mommy?”

“Well, Vicki is going to have a baby. Isn’t that cool? And you know what’s even cooler? That baby will be your brother or sister, depending on whether it’s a boy or a girl.”

Sophie’s eyes were wide. “Wow!”

“I’m not sure of the exact date but after Christmas, closer to springtime. I think the baby is due in April or May, so not right away. But the baby’s in her tummy and you may be able to tell when you look at her.”

“Oh, I hope it’s a girl, I hope it’s a girl. I really want a sister.” She turned to her grandmother. “Girls are pretty great, right Nana?”

Teresa reached and gently squeezed Sophie’s wrist. “They’re the best,” she said.

“Should we keep doing best-part-of-your-day?” Sophie asked. “I’ll go. Best part of my day is that. I’m gonna have a sister, maybe.”

Sophie looked at her mother. “Why do you look sad, Mommy?”

Nora perked up. “Oh, I’m not sad. Just tired. Can I go now? I’m going to take two like Nana. Best part of my day is this dinner with you two and my other best is that Vicki’s going to have a baby.” Nora looked down at her food. “Now let’s finish eating so you can play for a little bit before bed.”

“Hi, Benny!” Sophie called as the big man stepped into the kitchen.

“Hey Sophie!” Benny said, pausing briefly at the door to the basement. “Don’t let me interrupt dinner. I’m headed down to do some work. And no rush, but maybe I can update Mommy on some stuff after dinner.”

“Sure thing,” Nora said. “Be down when the bug here gets her jammies on.”

The top of Sophie’s head was just visible above the back of the family room couch as she read to her dolls. Teresa reached from the sink and handed Nora a plate to put in the dishwasher. “Hey,” she whispered in a voice almost lost in the running water, “so the baby is not really your best. Am I reading that right?”

“You are,” Nora said quietly. She lifted her chin toward the family room. “It’s not really her sibling—it’s her half sibling—but I can’t figure out a way to say that without looking like a jerk.”

“I think you’re talking about it just the right way,” Teresa answered. “At the age of eight, she has to embrace this without any qualifiers. She’ll figure all that out down the road.”

“You’re right,” Nora said tiredly. “I know that. It’s just the same old weirdness I feel about Nick—who I really, really don’t want to be with—and some sadness around the fact that I may be single for the rest of my life. Also, this Helen nightmare is hanging over our lives. So I’m definitely feeling weird about the baby news and I know there’s good reason for that. But I just want things to get back to normal and it feels like we’ll never get there.”

Teresa pulled her daughter into a hug, leaving wet handprints on the back of Nora’s shirt. Then she pushed her away gently, slipping her hands to hold her shoulders. “It’s going to be okay. You know that, right? All the sources of weirdness will work themselves out and we’ll find a new normal and it’ll be the best normal ever. Don’t lose sight of that.”

“I won’t, Mom,” Nora said, pulling her mother back into a brief hug. “You finish here while I take Soph up?”

“Of course,” Teresa said. “And I may run a cup of tea down to our hardworking basement dweller.”

Nora gave her mother a crooked smile. “You do that. Very kind of you. You’re such a giver.”

“Stop,” Teresa protested, returning the smile. “How’d you like to be alone in the basement all the time?”

“Fine, Mom. But if Sophie wants you to read books to her, I’m coming down to get you. Don’t let me walk in on anything that would land me in therapy.”

“Your mind, sometimes,” Teresa said, shaking her head. “My goodness. And I’d be happy to read books to Sophie tonight.”

“Coming down the basement stairs!” Nora shouted before adding, “Now walking toward the wine room!”

Benny and Teresa were sitting in the two war room chairs sipping tea. “You really are a comedian,” Benny said as Nora entered.

Turning to her mother, Nora said, “This looks very civilized, but you’re needed two flights up. Ladybug insists that Nana read tonight.”

“I’m on it,” Teresa said, standing. “Benny, a pleasure as always.” Benny stood and smiled as she left the room.

“Jeez, you’re getting all kinds of manners,” Nora said when Teresa was gone.

Benny’s face flushed as he sat back down. “Just tryin’ to be polite.”

“Forget it,” Nora said. “Catch me up on the day.”

Benny went to the whiteboard. “All kinds of strange shit today in the temple of truth and transparency,” he said, using the knuckles of one hand to quickly knock on four photographs taped to the board. “Arty, Chip, Miranda, and Marcus. We did those four. Now just gotta do Jeffey Jepson and your boy Louis Lambert.”

“Ick,” Nora said.

“And, just so you don’t think I was goofing off, I also went and saw Demi Kofatos today.”

“You really are earning your money. Let me double your salary!” Nora said with a smile.

“Remind me again: What money?” Benny said.

“And that’s exactly how we can afford to double it. On with the update,” Nora replied, pointing to the whiteboard.

“Jesus, what a crew you work with,” Benny said. He stepped back and pointed at the photographs this time, as if moving down a line of targets at the shooting range. “Arty’s an evil piece of shit, Chip’s just a douchebag frat boy, and Miranda’s an ambitious stone-cold queen.”

“Marcus?”

“That strange dude is actually the only one I like. I’m warming up to this unemotional but completely honest Vulcan shit. But lemme take you through what each of them said.”

When he was done recounting the interviews, Nora chuckled. “Mr. Bad Cop got a lot of work done today.”

Benny nodded and smiled back. “A lot.”

“But it sounds to me as if you don’t like any of them for the actual crime?” Nora said.

“That’s right. They all had reason to not like Helen, but enough to kill her? Hard for me to see. And none of them were suspects in your front-running investigation, so even if they were doing it—and I see nothing that says they were—they didn’t know they were being chased.”

Benny paused before adding, “Strangely enough, the one I could most see offing Helen is Miranda. But she’s right that I can’t picture her getting it done physically. She’s about Helen’s size, maybe even smaller. Maybe under that smooth pearls-on-a-fleece shit, she secretly hated Helen with the heat of a thousand suns—and that motivated her to get it done.”

“And you’ll finish with Jeffey and Louis at the office tomorrow?” Nora asked.

“That’s the plan. We got Jeffey at the office but Laslo and I decided to hit your boy Louis at his place in the city. Given what’s in his file, I’d like to get into his house. And, like I told you, I also wanna talk to a bunch of the assistants.”

“Tell me again why you want to meet with them?” Nora said.

He stood and walked to the whiteboard in their little war room at Nora’s house. He tapped on the pictures of Saugatuck’s leaders as he spoke.

“So you told me that all these people at the top have at least one of those ‘assistants.’ All those smart young worker bees are on the inside watching what goes on to kinda help and protect their boss right?”

“That’s right,” Nora said, “like I have Abe and Helen had Tracey.”

“Good so far. When I wanted to know what was goin’ on in a Cosa Nostra family, who would I try to flip? The guys near the top, around the boss—the underboss or the consigliere. They’re on the inside. They see stuff, they hear stuff, they carry out orders.”

Nora smiled. “That all makes perfect sense, but try not to lead with the Mafia informant comparisons if you actually meet with the assistants.”

“Nah, that’s just for you, but I wanna meet with the bunch of ’em. Those people know stuff. Hell, for all I know, one of ’em did Helen.”

Nora arched her eyebrows at that.

“But not impossible, right?” Benny said.

“Not impossible,” Nora agreed. “And I very much agree you could learn stuff from them, even if they aren’t murderers. So how do you want to do it? One on one?”

“No, thought about that, but makes more sense to start with a free-for-all. Get ’em all in a room and let peer pressure work. As I understand the place, they’ll wanna demonstrate their complete transparency and ruthless commitment to truth. If those kids believe that shit the way you say they do—even when a lot of the grownups clearly don’t—it may help ’em open up. So let’s get your young honest Abe to set me up to meet with the assistants ASAP.”

“Okay,” Nora answered. “I’ll get him on it. Anything I should know from the Demi meeting?”

“Oh right,” Benny said. “That was an interesting one. First, dickhead Porter was right; they’re definitely using this one-person grand jury thing. She didn’t say exactly, but she said, if you take my meaning. Second, I have a strong feeling she’s on team Nora, but her boss is pushing hard to make an arrest. This whole thing doesn’t feel right to her—which it shouldn’t to anyone who’s not a moron—and I get the sense she’s draggin’ her feet a bit. Could be wrong, but that’s what I left with.”

“Interesting,” Nora said. “I like her.”

“Yeah, I know. But maybe too early to book a weekend in the Hamptons or some shit. It’s just a sense I got. Like I said, I could be wrong.”

Nora smiled. “You really are getting all Saugatuck, aren’t you? ‘Could be wrong, could be wrong.’ Next thing, you’ll be wearing a fleece sweatshirt and sitting on your foot.”

Benny laughed. “Not at fucking gunpoint. Now go kiss your angel goodnight.”